04-30-2008
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Vice President
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Member Since: Jan 2004
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Posts: 9,893
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No Recession Yet - GDP up in Q1-2008
A reccesion is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. While its possible that started in April 2008, it didnt start in January. Production is still increasing. Good news for the economy.
Quote:
GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT: FIRST QUARTER 2008 (ADVANCE)
Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property
located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008,
according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real
GDP also increased 0.6 percent.
The Bureau emphasized that the first-quarter "advance" estimates are based on source data that
are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 3). The first-
quarter "preliminary" estimates, based on more comprehensive data, will be released on May 29, 2008.
The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from
personal consumption expenditures (PCE) for services, private inventory investment, exports of goods
and services, and federal government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from
residential fixed investment and PCE for durable goods. Imports, which are a subtraction in the
calculation of GDP, increased.
The increase in real GDP is the same as in the fourth quarter, reflecting an upturn in inventory
investment that was offset by an upturn in imports, and downturns in nonresidential structures, in PCE
for durable goods, and in PCE for nondurable goods.
Final sales of computers contributed 0.12 percentage point to the first-quarter growth in real GDP
after contributing 0.16 percentage point to the fourth-quarter growth. Motor vehicle output subtracted
0.30 percentage point from the first-quarter growth in real GDP after subtracting 0.86 percentage point
from the fourth-quarter growth.
FOOTNOTE.--Quarterly estimates are expressed at seasonally adjusted annual rates, unless otherwise
specified. Quarter-to-quarter dollar changes are differences between these published estimates.
Percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and are annualized. "Real" estimates are in chained
(2000) dollars. Price indexes are chain-type measures.
This news release is available on BEA's Web site along with the Technical Note and Highlights
related to this release.
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